Motor vehicle and other speed-reducing or speed-increasing transmissions of the mechanical or hydromechanical type generally comprise a transmission housing enclosing, inter alia, means for changing the transmission ratio between an input shaft and an output shaft and gearing forming part of such means or part of the power train which can include gears on the output shaft.
The latter connected to the load externally of the transmission housing is generally journaled in a bearing at the output end of the housing and has a free end terminating within the housing.
In some cases, this output shaft has its free end rotatably mounted via suitable bearings in the free end of the output shaft so that both free ends can be supported.
Obviously, such an arrangement is only effective when the input and output shafts have a common axis.
In modern space-conserving complex transmissions, the input shaft is with increasing frequency disposed parallel to but offset from the axis of the output shaft so that mutual support of the two shafts is not possible.
For journaling this free end of the output shaft, therefore, it is desirable to provide a roller bearing within the transmission housing. This, however, cannot always be done effectively, because, on the one hand, the conventional bearing mounts which have to be machined in or cast unitarily with the housing, cannot readily be accommodated in the available space.
Furthermore, when bearings of the latter type are provided in a transmission, assembly of the transmission is complicated because only gears to one side of the additional bearing can be premounted upon the output shaft before the latter is fitted into the transmission housing, the gears on the opposite side of the bearing being thereafter mounted upon the shaft.
Once the output shaft assembly is fitted to the transmission housing, the assembly of the additional gears thereof in the manner described may be difficult or even impossible without unduly enlarging the transmission housing, complicating the access of the interior thereof or creating sealing problems.